Editors' Review

If you're looking for a browser to safeguard your identity while surfing, you'll want to try out this app.

e-Capsule Private Browser HD downloaded quickly, but the installation process had us jumping through a few more hoops than we would've liked. The browser interface is nicely designed and free of the button-and-field-toolbar clutter that plagues many browsers. Instead, Private Browser offers only a few essential buttons with its menu and URL field, including a button for checking your IP address and hiding your identity for anonymous surfing.

This tabbed browser performed well in all our tests, although it was slow in opening a few sites we tried. Initially we liked that it prompted us when we clicked to enter and to leave encrypted pages, but that soon became annoying and we turned off the feature. (A similar feature that would sound a tone or pop up a small icon in the taskbar might be more appealing than having a large message box appear in the middle of the page.)Opening the browser requires entering a password and waiting for a launch process similar to an installation process, which could aggravate users accustomed to instant Web access.

Private Browser offers some security in surfing that other free browsers don't. There's a short 14-day trial, but it's long enough to know if its features are worth the price to you.

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Publisher's Description

The e-Capsule Private Browser is a family of "zero-footprint" products allowing unbeatable security and anonymity for your Web surfing and online transaction activities. The e-Capsule Private Browser is today the only encrypted zero-footprint Internet browser for anonymous Web surfing without leaving any traces also on the local PC. All the Internet session's temporary files, visited, history, cookies, passwords, form entries and even cache are kept encrypted (AES256) at all times. The IP address of the user can be hidden by routing all traffic over a network of anonymous proxy servers so that tracking and identification via traffic analysis on the content provider side is practically impossible. Within the e-Capsule Private Browser product family, the HD version is specifically designed for the privacy of Internet sessions and online transactions carried out using desktops and laptops.

Anonymous Web Surfing stopped working 11 months ago. Tech Support advised they will upgrade software soon. Each time I follow-up they say be patient. 11 months later I am still waiting for a soloution.

Summary

It seems that once you have paid you fee, no one cares if the product works for you as intended. My initial request for tech support was made in January 2010. In July, I even offered to remove software and start over but Tech Support's was simply "be patient" we have sent the product to development team.

You install the icon on your desktop. When you want to hide your IP, you click on it, and it opens as a browser. Then you enter the URL you want to go to. It works very well at hiding the IP, I checked it several times. However, it is extremely, and I mean extremely slow. I wanted to tear my hair out waiting for the pages to come up. Whether you would like it or not depends on your patience level. I will not be paying for the full version.

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